The Beta's Forbidden Mate

Chapter Nineteen

My pulse drummed in time with my racing footsteps. I was low to the forest floor, my wolf eyes cutting through to darkness.

Asher ran next to me, shortening his huge stride to keep pace with my uneven ones. He glanced over every few moments, making sure I was still there.

"Let the wolf do the running," he said again. "She knows what to do."

Despite the hammering in my heart, I tried to breathe and do what he said.

Let the wolf do the running.

The wolf was ready, and immediately took hold over my body. My strides lengthened, my nose constantly sniffing the warm air.

The pursuing wolves were closing in.

"Did you say something about a car?" Asher asked in my thoughts.

The sensation was so strange, like someone tickling my mind with a feather.

"Yes. It's somewhere to the south. On the highway."

"Okay. Follow me."

I thought I'd been running as fast as my wolf legs could carry me, but from somewhere inside I found another spurt of energy.

We sprinted through the forest. My human mind was on the verge of panic, but my wolf was unafraid.

It didn't understand fear. To the wolf, I was the supreme hunter—the queen of my domain, running with my mate by my side.

It was unbelievable. I darted through the forest like a silent shadow, my wolf paws absorbing the sound of the crackling leaves. Asher ran faster, bounding over twisted roots and fallen logs.

The bond between us pulsed and throbbed like a living thing. I could feel it calling out for something—there was something I needed to do. But I didn't know what it was, and I didn't have time to find out.

A howl sounded from behind us, closer than before.

We fled, running for what felt like hours through the twisted brush. My human mind had no idea where I was going, but my wolf intuition was following some deeper urge.

Finally, through the inky darkness I could make out a narrow break in the trees. The highway.

My wolf claws clicked on the asphalt as we came out of the forest, looking up and down the darkened road for the car.

I smelled it before I saw it, a unique combination of gasoline fumes and the imprinted scent of Kelly's perfume on the seats.

"This way!" I darted up the road, with Asher hot on my heels.

The highway curved, and then up ahead I spotted the dark silhouette of the little red Mazda.

"There it is!" I cried to Asher in my mind.

I was panting, my untrained wolf legs at the very edge of their endurance.

Behind us, five wolves burst from the treeline, snarling and snapping their fangs as they pursued us.

The one in front was even larger than the rest—even larger than Grimeer—an enormous animal roughly the size of a bear, but with the long muzzle and glowing amber eyes of a werewolf.

This was the alpha. My wolf could sense his dominance, had the instinctive urge to roll over and show him my belly.

But that would mean death. I fought against the impulse, still running for the car.

Asher fell back, turning to confront the pack.

"Asher, no! Keep going!"

"You need time to shift back! I'll hold them off."